To read the rest of Mr. Hughes’s article, see his U.S.News.com post here.

Keynesians howled last week when Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, announced his intention to shrink the budget deficit by more than the previous Labour government. The fiscal squeeze would plunge Britain into a 1930s-style depression. Where would demand come from with the rest of the world limping out of recession? Mr. Osborne’s Labour predecessor joined the chorus, suggesting that for all his plans to cut public spending if Labour had won the election, Alistair Darling would always have found excuses for delay.

To read the full article, click here.

It would be interesting to see numbers on our industry. The White House Writers Group, of course, has provided considerable client services outside the United States, even outside this hemisphere. Ours is more of an export industry than ever, and we can expect it to become even more of one in the future. Just as technologies have made it possible to compete in communications services beyond one’s own shores, it will become an even more global market, as improvements in telecommunciations make it easier to communicate with clients and keep up-to-date on developments in international markets.

More and more, the most exportable products are ideas, and the ability to communicate them.

It may be that the competitive spirit one learns on in competitive sports translates into a significant advantage in business. Neither CEO gave up easily: Rosenfeld has turned Kraft into the world’s biggest confectionary company, replacing Mars. Stitzer managed to get for his shareholders a 50 percent increase over Kraft’s original offer last September.

This is not just a book about how Shenzhen is thriving. It is also about how Waltham, MA and Camden, S.C. are bouncing back. And it is about the fact that all communities will have to continually reinvent themselves to compete in the heightened, prolonged era of globalzation the author argues is coming. For anyone looking for a deep intellectual explanation of globalization, there might be more apporpriate books to recommend. But Sonic Boom is a valuable resource for anyone whose job includes explaining global economic change.

These are just a couple of small examples of the kind of idiomatic and cultural knowledge it is increasingly important to have, whether writing a speech, an article, a report or any other communications tool aimed at reaching a foreign audience.

A growing number of people around the world speak English. But at the same time they appreciate it when someone trying to communicate with them demonstrates a grasp of national and local idiom. Speechwriters, for example, are best-advised to eschew colloquialisms like ‘shake on it’ if they are writing for an Asian audience, for whom the handshake is not a traditional symbol of agreement. There are a lot of linguistic traps out there, which is making speechwriting (and all other kinds of business writing) a more challenging field, demanding more globalized expertise.

The result: His company’s troubles with the commission continued for years.

Remember two things in dealing with Brussels.

First, the commission staff is made up of genuine experts in their fields.  If you talk to them knowledgeably and with clarity, they will listen and they will hear.

Second, treat the staff with respect.  Don’t sweep in like the king of the world.  Show some humility.  The staff knows you have your job to do.  Show that you know they have theirs.